Coming Dawn
by 3ndless
Summary: It has been a long time since the world changed for one Dante Di Angelo. 17 years old and for the last two and a half months, a survivor in all the chaos. While on his own he runs into a ragtag group of survivors that take him in, but not without its fair share of drama and hardships. Story begins just after SS:2 kicks off. Minor language, OC insert, slightly AU.


_**Greeting everyone, just a little something I wanted to start off as another side project and I had been getting into The Walking Dead again and I have wanted to start a Zombie story. And it was between this and High School of the Dead x Dead Island. But this one won had me over since my hand bought the first three seasons. Now for a little background on my OC that will be inserted into the story.**_

_**Story begins with a teenager names Dante di Angelo. 17 years old, years of training from his father and the instructors from the base they lived on. He is a skilled marksman having won 2 Marksmen tournaments in his youth, an athlete along with being the top student in CQC. Went hunting every now and then with bows and he wanted to be like his father who served his country and raised him on his own.**_

_**Has dark brown hair, light blue eyes. Tall build and tan skin, currently wearing dark and grey tactical camo pants with knee pads, a thermal shirt under a green shirt and a tactical vest that he had taken from a fallen soldier and steel toed boots.**_

_**Current weapons: A Machete, a custom M1911 with attachments, a FN Scar 17 custom with attachments.**_

_**Now with that said and done, enjoy!**_

_**The Walking Dead : Coming Dawn : Episode 1**_

It had been 65 days since everything went to shit. Ever since Z-day, I had learned just how dark the world really was. There was no black or white, only grey. The world that had become what it is now changed everyone.

And I am no different.

My name is Dante di Angelo. I had traveled north from Kentucky towards Georgia with a group of others from the base we came from and my dad was stationed at the base when everything went down. We got out with three other teens out along with two soldiers. We traveled light, taking only what we needed. Weapons, ammo, enough food for three days and our survival packs as we the other teens and me all lived most of our lives on a base so we were trained and ready for anything.

But a Zombie apocalypse, that was something no one was ready for well give or take a few of those people everyone thought as crazy. Looks like they weren't so crazy after all right?

It took us two months to make it to Georgia and get through half of it. And Tennessee wasn't the best of times. We were heading towards Fort Benning, one of the soldiers said they heard it was a last stiff effort to hold the dead back. Thou the road was rough and not without losses.

Out of our group of six had dwindled down until only us teens left. But even then, we got separated with a horde of them came through. It was in a graveyard of cars in the middle of a freeway. They came while we were scavenging for anything useful and from the looks of it the place had been picked clean. Expect for some food let out on the hood of a car and a note for someone named Sophia. They caught us off guard and one of use had died while the other two and I ran off knowing we needed to get away before it was too late.

We managed to make it to a town where we made camp, only while we spent a week gathering supplies and being like ghost never attracting much attention to ourselves and never using out guns unless it was completely necessary.

But when I was going through my things, making sure everything was in order and my weapons were in their best conditions. I heard voices coming from nearby as I grabbed my M1911 suppressed pistol making sure to pull the hammer back as I moved over to one of the closed windows as I peeked outside only to see three guys moving closer towards the front door.

I quickly and quietly grabbed my bag and things moving to another room as I knew what was going to happen now. They were going to come in and take everything from us like the last time. Raiders had killed one of the soldiers with us taking most of our things before the others came back and fended them off.

Hiding behind a thin wall of the other room, I heard the door opening up as I pulled out my pistol and got ready for them to come around the corner. I slowed my breath as I heard the floor boards creaking from their steps as one of them shouted.

"Holy shit, they weren't lying. Look as this stuff!" One of them said as I heard them shuffling through my friends things.

"Nice, weapons and ammo even some food! Should be enough to last us a while longer, and look a real rife for limp dick to use." A smug voice said as I knew they found Brandon's M4 AR and handed it to someone. A third guy was with them.

"Why do you guys keep calling me that?" The third guy asked, he sounded a bit younger than the other two.

I heard the other two laughing at his question, "Because when we found those two girls and their pops, you had the hardest time getting it up!" They said laughing as I could only imagine what they meant. But it didn't take a genius to put two and two together.

Readying my gun, I hear a whistle before a car pulled up outside on the street.

"Shit, those idiots are gonna bring more of them to us." One of them said.

"Just take everything. We'll go through them when we get back to camp." Another said as they picked up the packs only to struggle as they weighed quite a bit.

"Damn this things are heavy, give me a hand here." One of them said as the third guy walked over and helped them before they walked out of the door as I heard them jump into a car before taking off.

My body relaxed a bit, but when I walked back into the room, they had taken everything. Both of my friend's packs were gone, only a few bullets were scattered around the floor as they rushed out of here.

I could only guess that they must have killed them before making them tell where we were hid. And after it was all done they came here and looted their things.

And when I left, I went and searched for them, if there a slim chance. Just a little one but I found them. The bodies of my friends there in an ally way behind a house, only they were being eaten by a group of Zeeks.

I knew they were gone already. But it didn't stop me from killing the Zeeks and burying what was left of their bodies. They were my friends, they would of done the same for me.

In my mind I could stop thinking about them. They died young, too young. I was the oldest out the three of us. Tommy, he was the youngest of his, me and Brandon told each other that if anything happened, we would watch over Tommy. He was only fourteen years old. He watched his dad eat his mom and sister in front of his eyes. He didn't deserve to go out like this. Neither of them did.

But at least they didn't have to live in this hell anymore.

Getting my things together, I started down the road once more. Being mindful of the Zeeks, that were scattered around. And using only a machete that I had found, I killed the few that were in my path and snuck around them.

It was never easy, for every Zeek I killed I felt a part of me die as they were once people. Like me, trying to survive, or fight back. I didn't know their story, but they were alive once.

I pressed on, moving through the forest and making camp when I could. The weight of my friends deaths were on my back. With Zeeks at my every turn, I had made it this far only luck and skill alone. I knew one day I could come across something that not even I could handle, but I pushed on for them. If I just gave up all their deaths would be in vein. Even if deep down I knew I was only postponing the inevitable.

It took me a few days of moving trekking through the forest and empty homes along the way but I had made it to the next town on the map, it wasn't that big but just a small community next to some farm lands.

I started the routine, finding a place to make camp, which just so happened to be a bar. It had some canned foods and drinks, water and soda, and of course alcohol. And it had a back room with only two entrances, the door leading to the bar and one in the back room that was blocked off until I moved things around and made the door accessible again.

I made sure to stay low for a few days as I was lucky to find this place. Brandon, one of my friends that died, carried our food rations, while Tommy the other kids with us, carried out water and I the ammo and heavy gear

It was a miracle I found this place and that it had things that hadn't been looted yet.

One day while I was out on my run, a horde of Zeeks had wondered into town and I held until they passed before I headed back to my base. Only when I arrived, I wasn't the only one there.

I went in through the back door when I heard the sound of a glass clank and some soft sighs. Someone was inside the bar with me.

I slowly and quietly pulled out one of my pistols and slowly made my way over to the door leading into the bar as the floor board's creaked a bit under my weight. I made it to the door and crack it open enough for me to peek inside, where I saw an old man sitting down at the bar.

He had on dark overalls and wore a white button up shirt and seemed very clean and had white hair with a receding hairline.

I pushed the door open slowly as I walked in my pistol aimed right at him. That's when he saw me

For a moment we just stared at each other before he spoke up.

"Put that gun away son. I had enough of those things for one day." He said with a heavy voice as he slammed another hit of his drink.

For a moment I hesitated for holster my weapon but something told me I could trust this guy.

"What brings you here?" I asked him as he just looked at me and gave a snort.

"Could ask you the same thing," He said with a laugh, "Last I checked this was a bar and you," He said pointing a finger at me, "Don't look older enough to drink son."

I just laughed, "Last I checked the world isn't how it used to be anymore." I told him and he nodded his head as he took another sip.

"No son, the world hasn't changed," He stared, "It us who have changed. Ever since this all started people have changed." He told me and somehow I couldn't help but agree.

I felt as if he was going to try anything so I wanted over to him from behind the bar and placed my hands on the counter top.

"I agree with you. People have changed," I said thinking back to everything that happened, "Some for the better, and some for the worst." I looking behind the counter and found a bottle of Gin. I grabbed it and placed it on the counter top only to have it taken from me.

"Son, I thought I told you not to drink." He said sternly and I sighed as I looked around and found a can of Coke.

I picked it up and showed it to him as he nodded his head as I popped the cap but not before cleaning it off some, all the time it was here it had collected quite a bit of dust.

"So what brings you here?" I asked making small talk, "I haven't seen anyone for days and the town looked empty to me, well besides them." I said taking a sip.

He sighed heavily, "I had to get away, needed some time to think for myself." He said looking down at his glass as he played with its contents.

I nodded to him knowing what he meant. I myself had taken to going out for supplies as a way of coping with everything that's happened.

"I can understand where you're coming from." I told him and it seemed to set him off.

"No you don't. You don't know what I had been through, what I had to suffer through." He said loudly as he stared at me his body trembling a bit.

But I just stared at him, "Yes I do." I told him, "I might not know what it was that happened to you but you're not the only one suffered."

"What does a kid like you know about suffering." He said as I placed the soda on the table and stared him in the eyes.

"I lost my two best friends a few days ago. I watched the men that killed them walk away with their things. And before that, I watched everyone last one of my group fall to not only those things out there but at the hands of other people." I looked down at my hand, "I can't tell you how much blood I have on my hands, but I can tell you I did it all to protect my own, my family."

When I said family I saw his eyes shift as if I had hit something.

He looked down at his drink, "Did you lose your family?" I asked him as he looked back up to me.

He sighed as he poured some more liquor into his cup, "My wife and son became one of them. Those things," He took another drink, "I thought that I could save them. That in time I could return them to normal. But I was wrong. I was so wrong." He said putting his face into his palm.

I know he felt, in the beginning I thought I could save dad but it was all in vain.

"It isn't wrong to hold on to our loved ones." I told him as I pulled out my dad's dog tags that I had around my neck, "When everything went down, my dad was bite and was changing into one of those things. He saved me and the other guys that I grouped up with. He got us out of the quarantine zone but after we got out, I had too."

"Say no more son. I can see where you are going with this and you don't need to continue." He told me and I gave him a nodded and a silent thanks.

We stayed silent for a while after that as he enjoyed his drink while I found another can of Coke and popped it open and started drinking it as just basked in the moment.

"Hershel Greene." He said looking up to me.

"Dante di Angelo." I told him and he gave out a little chuckle.

"Tell me Mr. Di Angelo, what is it you plan on doing after this?" He asked me.

"To tell the truth I don't know. I haven't thought about what I was going to do for the past few days. With everything's that happened." I let out a sigh, "I'm tired of running, surviving only on a whim." I looked at him and grinned, "But I'll keep going. I have to, or else every one of my friends would have been in vain."

"How can you keep moving knowing? How can you live with everything that's happened?" He asked me and I just grinned again.

I pointed my thump at my chest right over my heart, "Because I remember." I started, "All the good times, and even the hard. They help keep me going even when I'm alone." I looked at Hershel and he nodded taking another drink.

"Tell me son, I know this might be a bit sudden. But I own a farm not too far from here. We got plenty of food and a warm place to sleep at night." He told me.

"You just met me and now you're inviting me to your home Hershel?" I asked him and he just chuckled.

"Son, I met my fair share of people in my life but when you get to my age. You learn to read people. I can tell you're a good person. This is my way to giving you a chance."

I thought for a moment, "I'll have to think about it if you don't mind. Don't get me wrong Hershel, I appreciate the kind gesture. But I'm been on my own for so long it just seems… well you know." I hinted and he nodded.

"Seems foreign," He took another sip, "I can relate." He told me as I looked at him.

I didn't know him, but being on my own. Thou I didn't want to admit it, it scared me.

"If you ok with taking in a complete stranger, I'll promise to pull my own weight around." I told him and he smiled as he looked at the bottle and slammed the last bit of it before placing the cup upside down.

"Then we best be going son, there are something's that I gotta make right." He told me as I nodded.

"Just let me grab my things from the back and we get moving." I told him but then I heard something creak as I dropped the soda can and pulled out my pistol and took aim at the front door that opened up and two guys walked in.

Only the first guy, a white man looked to be in his late thirties or so. He wore dark brown pants and a sweat covered tanned shirt. Once he saw me, he lifted his pistol which happened to be a .44 Magnum, as he pointed it at me while I zeroed in on him as he looked me in the eye.

I felt the tension rising more and more as we had out standoff, that is until, "Put the gun down son. And you too Rick." Hershel said as I looked at him before back at the man.

He looked as if wasn't going to listen, but I backed down holding my hand up as I slowly pulled my gun down as he held his aimed at me still which peeved me a bit.

"You know them Hershel?" I asked putting my pistol back in its holster but didn't close it just in case I needed to pull it out again.

Hershel nodded his head, "Who's with you Rick?" He asked turning around.

The second guy behind the man, Rick, was an Asian dude with a baseball cap on. He had this worried look on his face as he had a shotgun lowered slightly in his arms.

Rick looked at me before he slowly lowered his gun and holstered it, "Glenn, he volunteered to come and get you." He said.

"Well thanks for coming all this way, but you didn't need too. I was going to head back right now with this young man." He told them as he looked back to me.

"Dante di Angelo. Nice to meet y'all." I told them and they gave me a nod, "Hershel, it looks like you guys have some things to talk about so I'll go ahead and gather my things. Give you some privacy." I told them and Hershel nodded as I walked towards the back room door and went to get my things.

Wasn't even ten minutes before I heard the front doors opening and some guy said, "Holy Shit."

Only when I heard the voice, it sounded familiar.

I hid my pack, making sure I had everything set if I need to make a break or come back for it later. I had another duffel bag that was filled with ammo and some random weapons I found around the town. But I carried all of my own ammo and guns in my own pack.

Taking out my pistol I stalked over to the door and listened in as they started talking.

The two new voices where trying to find out where Hershel, Rick and Glenn came from, and kept prying for any information they could.

Then I hear a loud bang and I pushed the door open and walked my gun at the ready as a shotgun barrel was raised right at me and I pointed my pistol at the man before I heard a shout coming from behind the counter. I looked over and I knew his face.

I looked at the man and he looked at me opening his arms up, "Well looky here! We got another youngin'!" He said with a big grin on his face as the big guy next to me continued to pointed the shotgun at me, "Hey Tony relax big guy, nothing for be all jumpy about right kid?" He asked me and I just looked at him before the big guy.

And then I saw it. On the counter top next to the guy was a black M4, one that I knew all too well.

"That's a nice gun you got there." I told him as I felt my blood boiling more and more as I stared at the stupid grin on his face.

"Like it? Me and Tony here along with a friend found it when we were looting some house. The guys that owned it told us they didn't need it anymore so we-"

"We took it for ourselves. Those punks tried to kill us they got what they deserved. Pulling a gun out on us like that." The fat guy said chuckling as his body seemed to jingle as he did.

I felt my hand twitch as I started breathing heavily as I glared at the fat man who looked as if he wanted to pull the trigger.

The other man just waved his hands around, "Come on Tony, kid. No need to get all worked up. We're all friends here so just relax and we'll have a beer k?" He said to me as I looked to him and smiled.

"Tell that to the two that you shot back in the other town, the one that you stole that gun from!" I shouted as the man reached for the gun as Rick pulled out his pistol and fired at the guy behind the bar I fired at the fat guy hitting him square in the head as he body slammed against the wood floor with a loud thump.

I turned to Rick who looked at me and I nodded to him before I looked to the fat guy and started searching him for weapons and ammo.

"This guy had a shotgun and 5 extra shots." I said as Rick looked at who had the M4 in his hands and was looking it over.

I walked over and put the gun on the counter as I looked back at Hershel and Glenn who looked shocked at what just happened so I told them.

"I know these two guys. They killed my two friends and left them for the Zeeks to eat before they looted all of our things." I told them as Rick looked at me.

"Are you certain of that?"

I nodded to him, "I watched them take out things. There was another one with them thou. That gun he had belong to Brandon, one of the ones they killed." I explained as he sighed as he put a hand on my shoulder.

"I know how you feel. Losing a friend is rough. But right now we need to get back to the farm." He told me as I nodded.

"Let me grab my bags." I told him as Rick stopped me.

"Wait a minute, who said you were coming with us?" He asked me as Hershel spoke up.

"I did Rick. The boy is alone out here, so I invited him back to the farm. I trust him."

Those three words made me look at Hershel. It's been a long time since I could trust someone, or even been told that someone trusted me.

Rick gave me a look before he rubbed his chin and sighed, "Go on and get your-" He stopped half way through his sentence as we all turned to the door at the sound of a car pulled up just outside of the bar.

We scrambled getting behind anything to hide.

I looked over to Glenn who was hiding behind a piano. Hershel who was hiding behind a pillar near the back door, and Rick and I were behind a table looking at each other as I heard the guys outside saying they heard gunshots.

"Shit, can today get any worse?" I whisper as I lifted my pistol taking aim as I watched the door for anything or anyone coming through it.

-_**TBC **_

_**Just a little teaser with more to come soon, 3ndless out.**_


End file.
